Judges 5 Reconsidered: Which Tribes? What Land?Whose Song?

10.1163/ej.9789004175150.i-474.64

Brill’s MyBook program is exclusively available on
BrillOnline Books and Journals. Students and scholars affiliated with an
institution that has purchased a Brill E-Book on the BrillOnline platform
automatically have access to the MyBook option for the title(s) acquired by the
Library. Brill MyBook is a print-on-demand paperback copy which is sold at a
favorably uniform low price.

Chapter Summary

Probably the most famous problem with regard to the settlement and the twelve-tribe system is the list of ten names of those who did and those who did not take part in the battle against Sisera and his allies (Judg 5:14-18). There is a peculiar discrepancy between the mild rebuke of four parties in this list of ten and the vehement cursing of Meroz because of the same offence. This discrepancy is hardly dealt with by scholars or even ignored. This chapter deals with this discrepancy as a means to investigate whether all ten names originally belonged to the song. It determines whether these names are real tribal names or whether sometimes dealing with references to the land. According to Noth, the Deuteronomist (Dtr) used, alongside a list of the minor judges, some heroic legends to create the section on the era of the judges in his Deuteronomistic History (DtrH).

Keywords: Deuteronomistic History (DtrH); Israel; minor judges; Song of Deborah; twelve-tribe system